The use of health information technologies to face the Covid-19 pandemic in Brazil

Abstract

Objectives: to demonstrate how the use of health information technologies, by monitoring public access networks, contributes to the reduction of health conditions in pandemics, evaluating the use of technologies in international experiences and its potential applicability to Brazilian context. Methods: an integrative review was carried out with a survey of articles in the Scielo, Pubmed and Google Scholar databases. 21 articles and 11 different documents were selected, such as journalistic pieces, book chapters, reviews, among others. The articles were read and critically analyzed by two different researchers. A third researcher was responsible for interpreting the results. Results: the study demonstrated that there is a great worldwide trend towards the use of Information and Communication Technologies as tools to help fight pandemics, since there were several world examples that dealt with the use of technologies to control Covid-19, and that use depends on the evolution and improvement of technological tools and the legislation involved. In Brazil, there is great potential for evolution in this area, with increased data collection and use, assisting in public health strategies and actions. However, in all scenarios presented, there is a need for improvement and adjustments in the legislative scope – giving greater legal responsibility to privacy rights – and social, with the expansion of the internet infrastructure, reaching the entire population and, mainly, with the greatest reliability of the data. Conclusion: based on the understanding of the scenario of use of Information and Communication Technologies in several countries and how the responses were made in their respective territories, a comparison was made with Brazil and it was noticed that the Brazilian technological capacity is limited in a way general. Sociocultural issues in Brazil stand out, because they are, at times, barriers that exist in the Brazilian scenario, and which must be discussed, aiming at a better understanding about the use of these technologies in public policies in order to reach the entire population. With that, it was seen that it is necessary the conscious and active participation of citizens in providing correct information, for the joint and continuous improvement of data collection, and the correct use of data by the State, without harming the privacy of citizens and improving health care for the population.